Pac-Man Arrangement (1996)
Pac-Man Arrangement is a remake of the original Pac-Man. It was released in 1996 by Namco as part of Namco Classic Collection Volume 2 with Pac-Man, Rally X, New Rally X, Dig Dug, and Dig Dug Arrangement. Gameplay Like the original Pac-Man, Pac-Man Arrangement is a maze game in which the objective is to clear all Pac-Dots on the board by eating them and avoiding hazardous contact with the ghosts that also inhabit the maze. Fundamental differences from the original game *There has been an obvious graphical and musical overhaul; all of the characters and items have pseudo-3D sprites, and each stage features full-fledged background music. *There is a fifth ghost, Kinky, who has several of his own quirks. *There are various power-ups the player can obtain which spawn at the start of the maze under certain conditions. *There are also a couple of new gimmicks the player can use which can assist in maneuvering through the maze. *Two-player mode is now done simultaneously rather than alternatively. *There is a new maze every round. Furthermore, there is a new "world" after the first two rounds and every four rounds following that. *It is possible to continue from the same round once a player loses all of their lives; however, score and lives will be reset. *The game has a legitimate final stage in the form of Round 23, which pits the player(s) against a boss fight with the ghosts. *A bonus life is awarded at 40,000 points rather than 10,000 (by default–the DIP switch settings for this are one bonus at just 40,000 points, one bonus each at 40,000 and 100,000 points, or disabling the bonus altogether). **Furthermore, the base amount of lives (three still being the default) can be tweaked to any number including and between two and six (vice the original Pac-Man, which only had options for one, two, three, and five lives). Ghosts The four original ghosts maintain their usual behavior; Clyde chases, Pinky ambushes, Inky is relatively unpredictable, and Blinky tends to wander off when close to Pac-Man. As they did in the original Pac-Man, the ghosts move in "scatter" and "chase" cycles, slow down when entering tunnels, can't travel up certain one-way paths (usually near the Ghost Home), turn slightly slower than Pac-Man–on the whole, Clyde, Pinky, Inky, and Blinky remain largely unchanged from their original counterparts until the gold-colored ghost, Kinky, comes into play. Kinky's A.I., characteristics, and effects are quite contrary to that of the standard four. He moves at quite a high speed when compared to the other ghosts, but is always vulnerable when Pac-Man is on the stage and even acts like a Power Pellet when eaten, scaring the other ghosts into a vulnerable state. While this might make him seem unthreatening, Kinky's true danger lies with his ability to combine with the classic quartet. When Kinky spawns in the Ghost Home (about three seconds after Blinky leaves it), he significantly lowers the speed of the ghost he intends to combine with to make them easier to catch. As with the other four though, the player can eat a power pellet to slow Kinky down momentarily and make him move pseudo-randomly (though he will still combine with his target if he happens to run into them). Kinky will disappear from the screen temporarily once Pac-Man eats him for the first time, but he always respawns at least once. Kinky can even fuse with multiple ghosts per round, and his maximum amount of occurrences is equal to the amount of ghosts he intends to merge with plus one. The transformations work as such: *Kinky gives Clyde a bull-like form that can charge through horizontal hallways; *Kinky gives Pinky a rabbit-like form that can leap from one side of the maze to the other; *Kinky gives Inky the ability to create a "mirror" ghost once Inky reaches the horizontal center of the screen (given that the ghosts are in "chase" mode); *Kinky gives Blinky the ability to replace previously cleared areas of the maze with large Pac-Dots. Here is a set of all of the ghosts' descriptors and aliases in this game. The default ghost names in Puck Man were carried over into the Japanese version of Pac-Man Arrangement, but the international version uses a mix of the Puck Man English descriptive names and the Pac-Man aliases. (These names were also used in the version of the original Pac-Man included with Namco Classic Collection Vol. 2.) Items and Gimmicks As aforementioned, there are several new items and gimmicks among the standard in Pac-Man Arrangement. *'Pac-Dot' – the most common and simple item; the standard ones are worth 10 points each, and Pac-Man must eat all of them in order to clear a round. Starting in World 1, however, larger Pac-Dots may appear (either as a "wave" or as a standard in the maze), which, though they can potentially be worth up to 50 points, slow Pac-Man down significantly. Blinky spits out large Pac-Dots in his combined form to keep Pac-Man on the maze longer. *'Power Pellet' – worth 50 points, and do the same thing they did in the original; they weaken the ghosts into a slower, vulnerable state, and enable Pac-Man to eat them. The point bonuses for eating a ghost now extend a bit beyond 1600 points–eating Kinky during a Power Pellet's vulnerability effect will temporarily extend the duration of the initial Power Pellet, allowing the player to score 3200 points for the 5th ghost eaten and 7650 points for any ghost eaten after that. Eating a combined ghost is another way to get the most out of one Power Pellet, as it will double the point bonus the played would have gotten AND bump them up to the next point bonus. One last "new" effect Power Pellets have in this game is the ability to remove the combined Inky's "reflection" from the maze. *'Red Capsule' – worth 1000 points; this spawns at Pac-Man's starting position if Clyde was the last ghost eaten. Eating it enables Pac-Man to move at a much faster speed for about ten seconds, also ignoring the slowdown eating large Pac-Dots would have. *'Pink Capsule' – worth 1000 points; this spawns at Pac-Man's starting position if Pinky was the last ghost eaten. Eating it will pull all of the ghosts to a brown pot in the Ghost Home for about four seconds. *'Cyan Capsule' – worth 1000 points; this spawns at Pac-Man's starting position if Inky was the last ghost eaten. Eating it will cause Pac-Man to create a "reflection" of himself. This faux Pac-Man has all of the same properties the standard one has, but is also invulnerable and even becomes the new "target" the ghosts refer to for their A.I. instead of the "real" Pac-Man. It lasts for about 10 seconds. *'Orange Capsule' – worth 1000 points; this spawns at Pac-Man's starting position if Blinky was the last ghost eaten. Eating it will give Pac-Man a very minor speed boost and cause him to ignore the deceleration given by large Pac-Dots. In contrast to the prior capsules, this lasts as long as the player doesn't lose a life or obtain another power-up (Power Pellets notwithstanding). *'Gold Capsule' – worth 100 points; this is an item that has a random chance of spawning if Kinky was the last ghost eaten. It has no other effect aside from the point bonus. *'Magic Wand' – worth 1000 points; this is an item that has a random chance of spawning if Kinky was the last ghost eaten. It changes all of the ghosts on-screen into harmless presents and makes them worth 1000 points each. It will last either for about 10 seconds, or until the player eats all of the ghosts. *'Brown Pot' – worth 1000 points; this is an item that has a random chance of spawning if Kinky was the last ghost eaten. It has the same effect as the Pink Capsule. *'1-UP' – worth 1000 points; this is an item that has a random chance of spawning if Kinky was the last ghost eaten, though it is extremely rare. It grants Pac-Man an extra life, regardless of the player's point count. *'Dash Panel' – a gimmick introduced in the second round. Running over it will cause Pac-Man to charge in the direction the arrow on the panel faces with limited control, stunning ghosts in his path for a brief moment. This dash can override Clyde's similar charging attack and will even wipe out Inky's "reflection" if Pac-Man happens to collide with it. Pac-Man can only use these once, but the ghosts are entirely unable to utilize them. *'Jump Panel' – a gimmick introduced in the sixth round. They come in up to four colors (which are the same as the main four ghosts, but are not particularly relevant to them), and running over one will cause Pac-Man to bounce to another Jump Panel of the same color. The ghosts can also use these, but experience much more landing lag than Pac-Man. Jump Panels are required to clear the penultimate round. Ports This game has only seen two rereleases; 2001's Pac-Man Collection for the Game Boy Advance (which also featured the original Pac-Man, Pac-Mania, and Pac-Attack) and the PS2/Gamecube/Xbox version of Namco Museum (which includes all of the games in Pac-Man Collection plus Ms. Pac-Man and six other Namco games). Trivia *This was the first game to include ghost "character" names since the original Pac-Man, aside from ports of the first game. It would also be the first time international audiences would see the "alternate" character names (the standard, here). *Ironically, this game was also the last to explicitly feature the character names in-game. *The future ports of the game improved the quality of the sound samples, but, for some reason, removed parts from some songs. The console version mainly only excluded minor transitions, but the Game Boy Advance version has entire parts of the melody absent in some songs. Category:Games